Sea levels are rising far faster than the latest estimates given by international climate change researchers, a new study has warned. Rising tides have the potential to threaten the homes of billions of people living in coastal areas across the world and could spell disaster for low-lying megacities like Tokyo and London.

The new findings suggest that the oceans are rising around 60 per cent more quickly than the latest best estimates from the International Panel on Climate Change. However the research found that the panel, which is derided by some as alarmist, was generally correct in its estimates of rising temperatures.

Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said that while global temperatures were rising within expectations, the 'more complex' problem of sea-level rises had outstripped predictions.

A new, first-of-its-kind comprehensive scientific analysis has shown that there is little to fear from rising sea levels driven by global warming. The likelihood is that the 21st century will see rises much like those of the 20th, and even in the worst possible case sea levels in 2100 will be far below those foreseen by alarmists.

There's a catch, of course: on a timescale of many centuries, serious alarmist-type rises in sea levels are to be expected. Even if humanity ceases all carbon emissions right now, in the year 3000AD the seas will have risen by 1.1m, according to Professor Philippe Huybrechts and his team.

As most Reg readers know, the various land-based ice sheets and glaciers of planet Earth today hold enormous amounts of water. As and when they melt, the potential is there for huge rises in sea level. This has led climate-alarmist campaigners to suggest in reputable peer-reviewed journals that "scientists" generally expect the seas to rise by a metre or more - flooding millions of homes - as soon as the year 2100.